Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Goblin Gifting: A History

The end of the year is a time for celebration, but also grief and fear
– as the cold sets in and the frost covers everything, there is little cause for
celebration. In certain towns in Golarion, though, one way that they combine
these feelings is Goblin Gifting.

Goblin Gifting is specifically aimed at children, and is a traditional activity
rooted in the well-deserved fear goblins inspire in the population. In areas where
goblins run rampant, families and whole communities may participate in Goblin
Gifting to teach their children valuable skills, and something to look forward to
(The tradition goes hand in hand with Night of the Pale on Kuthona 30th in most
areas).

Toy-sized goblin heads are constructed from green dyed wool, and often
have gaping mouths. Glass, beads or bright buttons serve as the eyes for the
little ornaments which also share the oversized ears of a goblin. The mouth is stuffed with taffy, candied fruits or other winter treats.

The goblin gifts are then hung in fir trees throughout town. In this exercise
of wariness and perception, children are not to go picking up goblin gifts they
find – the children must describe the location to an adult with as many details as
possible, and if the adult can follow the child’s directions, the child receives all
the sweets inside the goblin as a reward.

After all goblins have been retrieved, the toys are burned in a celebratory
bonfire, often as part of the town’s pre-Night of the Pale festivities.

You can download the pattern for freeHERE, and hook it on Ravelry HERE. Go further on for the pattern in text form!

Once upon a time, when I was new to painting miniatures, we had an Orcus.
Orcus had some kind of unfortunate paintjob done at the hands of a Chinese worker. Instead of looking like the good promo art above, he looked sad.
Really sad.
On top of that, the little nubbins on the bottom of his wings looked really good in the picture - however, the person who sculpted Orcus seems to not have understood they were gathered wings. He ended up with butterfly tails, with big flat bottoms.
The Prince of Undeath needed to look a little less...fabulous.

Photo taken on the Pathfinder bookshelf at local gaming store, Dungeon's EndDo you play Pathfinder? Do you know someone who does?

For those of you who don't know, Pathfinder is a role-playing game derived from the Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 system. Since Paizo, the company who design Pathfinder, first did so, Pathfinder has overtaken D&D 4th edition as the D20 system of choice for many gamers.